Terror sentencings challenge is denied by judge, in detail

A federal judge has denied the motions of a North Bergen man and Elmwood Park man who argued that their sentencings for a terrorism-related crime were unfair because they were done on the same day as the Boston Marathon bombing.

The ruling signed this week by District Court Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise will let stand the 22-year-sentence he meted out to Mohamed Alessa, 23, of North Bergen, and the 20-year-sentence given to codefendant Carlos Almonte, 27.

After the April 15 sentencing, defense attorneys sought a new sentencing, arguing that the prosecutors' knowledge of the Boston Marathon bombing allowed them to alter their presentation to focus on the vulnerability of targets in the New York area, rather than on the defendants themselves.

In the motion filed April 29, they also argued Debevoise knew of the bombing at the time of the sentencing, but that the defense was not aware of it.

The judge said that the defense attorneys' recollection of the hearing was faulty.

Two assistant U.S. attorneys gave presentations and the one who spoke first focused on the vulnerability of targets. The argument was made before word of the Boston bombings reached the court, the opinion says.

Debevoise notes that the prosecutor then invited the second prosecutor to "talk about the individual characteristics of the defendants."

The judge also noted that the sentencing process involved thousands of pages of documents reviewed over a long period of time and his 43-page statement on the reasons for the sentences was compiled long before the bombings.

Alessa and Almonte were arrested in June 2010 at Kennedy International Airport in New York while preparing to board separate flights to Somalia, via Egypt.

Debevoise also noted that the pair waived the right to challenge any sentence less than 30 years as part of their plea agreement.